Jasika Nicole RUNWAY magazine Interview

What have you been doing during quarantine?

Staying home and making things: food, shoes, clothes, furniture,

textile art, pottery, watercolor. If I have the materials to create

it, I’ll do it.

I prefer breathable fabrics whenever possible in linen, highquality

You make your own clothes and shoes. What are

some of your favorite patterns and fabrics?

cotton, and silk blends. I’m really into polka dots and

hues in my seasonal color palette right now. Seasonal palettes

are a bit of an old-school approach to fashion and beauty, but

after reading the original (problematic, but informative) book

on color palettes for skin types that came out in the 70’s, it

all connected for me and it has had a huge impact on the

types of clothes I make and the outfits I now put together. I will

always have a place in my heart for Big 4 patterns (Vogue,

McCalls, etc), but I prefer working with indie patterns…the fit is

usually better requiring less adjusting and the instructions and

construction techniques are often more thoughtful and nuanced.

What is your favorite type of art?

I love the type of art that is usually labeled as “craft” and

therefore considered “women’s work” and not valuable enough

to be considered high art. It is a product of our society’s inherent

misogyny that puts functional craftsmanship like weaving,

basket making, pottery, quilting, etc. into categories that are

deemed less dignified than “art”. It is not a coincidence that

much of this art comes from poorer communities of color. I love

the intersection of modern artists with centuries-old craft and am

always excited to see how they innovate within the realm of art.

What is your favorite type of music?

I love soul music, but as long as it has a groove and I can sing

to it, it’s probably in my rotation.

What was your favorite subject in school?

English.

How do you relax?

By making. Knitting and pottery have proven to be very

therapeutic ways for my brain to relax and regulate my body’s

breathing while I focus my energy into something tangible and

malleable.

Tell us about your role on The Good Doctor. What

have you enjoyed most? What has been the most

challenging?

I play a pathologist named Dr. Carly Lever. I have most enjoyed

working with Freddie Highmore, he is a dream scene partner

and I am lucky to have spent pretty much all of season 3 with

him. The most challenging aspect has been having to field the

hateful and sometimes racist reactions from fans who either

didn’t want to see Shaun end up romantically with my character,

or felt deeply uncomfortable at seeing an interracial relationship

portrayed on TV.

Did you like school?

I loved school, because I knew it was the only way I was

going to get myself out of the South. Thankfully I was good at

school and was able to focus much of my energy into doing

well so that I could get scholarship money to go to college. I

grew up very poor and I knew the chances of me having the

kind of life I wanted to lead as an adult were going to rely on

me having some kind of higher education, but I feel resentful

that opportunities for poor people of color are so few and far

between. We already start out at a deficit when you consider

the effects of both generational poverty and trauma on BIPOC

communities, and then we have to work doubly hard to compete

with people who grew up with more resources, access and

institutional support.

Do you have any pets?

We have a Pitbull named Rosie.

What is your favorite color?

Yellow.

What’s up next for you?

Making sure me and my loved ones survive Covid-19 is my only

goal right now.

Plug your social media.

I’m on Twitter: @TheJasikaNicole and my Instagram is

@jasikaistrycurious.

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